This disclosure relates to the conversion of handwritten music notations into music symbols and concerns more particularly a method of recognising music symbols based on handwritten music notations in digital format, and an apparatus for implementing such a method.
Various implementations consistent with the invention can be applied to handwritten music notations inputted by a user on an input device or to handwritten music notations previously received or stored in electronic format (e.g. in an electronic document) and processed for the purpose of recognising music symbols.
Over the last few years, computer systems based on an interaction with a pen or the like, such as smartphones, pocket PC or tablet PC have been subject to a significant growth. Using fingers or a stylus on a touch screen is very intuitive as it enables the user to write or compose in a natural manner as he would do on a piece of paper.
There now exist many input devices equipped with a touch screen which have capabilities for recognizing handwritten notations inputted by a user.
The interpretation of handwritten drawings realised for instance on a touch screen (e.g., on-line recognition) requires complex processing as these drawings may contain many elements of various natures, depending on the type of notations used, the style of the user, etc. Recognition of an on-line document can occur either on-the-fly or upon detection of a particular condition, such as the explicit request of the user. On-the-fly recognition systems transform the strokes of the users into their corresponding symbolic representation directly or simultaneously while the document is being composed, which requires significant processing capabilities.
Handwritten music recognition is a particular domain that has been subject to several advances over the last years. While some improvements have been achieved for off-line recognition systems, in particular for optical method applied to scanned music notation, music symbol recognition for on-line recognition systems are not satisfactory in terms of efficiency and user-friendliness.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,538,187 describes a system whereby a menu of music notes is provided on a music editor application for the user to click on desired notes or music symbols. This application, however, has several shortcomings, including constraints that make it difficult for a user to compose music symbols in a natural and easy manner.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a solution which enables very efficient recognition of music symbols based on handwritten music notations. A high degree of efficiency is required for fast, practical processing of music notations inputted by a user on an input device such as a touch screen or for handwritten music notations stored beforehand in an electronic format for later processing. There is also desirable to have more user-friendliness in the manner the user composes the music notations.